Biodiversity conservasion and forest management

On July 7, Mainichi-shimbun reported that Forestry Agency of Japan is considering biodiversity conservation in forest managements in the next revision of Forest and Forestry Master Plan.

Needless to say, biodiversity conservation should be considered in the forest management, and it may be benefits for future generations. But, the problem is that there is no substantial guideline to evaluate and conserve biodiversity in current Japan. For this reason, the article said that the committee concluded that there is urgent need to increase the knowledge and data about forest ecosystems. I agree with it.

However, as far as reading the news release from Forestry Agency, the most important message from the committee seems not to be data. One committee mentioned that following:

It is necessary to promoting adaptive management of forest with scientific point of view when we consider about biodiversity conservation in the measures. In Japan, research (on forest ecosystem) is often insufficient, so that the amount of scientific knowledge should be considered. The measures should not be assertive, rather it should emphasize that there is urgent need for research to reduce uncertainty. (translated by M. Tomita)

生物多様性を施策に取り入れるには、科学的な視点から問題を捉え、順応的な森林管理を推進することが必要。日本においては必ずしも調査研究の蓄積や分析が十分ではなく、どの程度科学的な知見が得られているかに応じて書き方を工夫することが必要。施策についても断定的に書くのではなく、むしろ不確実性を減らすために必要な調査研究が必要であることを強調すべき。

The important point is "promoting adaptive management of forest with scientific point of view". Scientists are expected not only to increase data about forest ecosystems, but rather to evaluate individual management practices under uncertainty, to give new address to the next plans, and to integrate those knowledge to discuss about common rules for the biodiversity conservation.

On the other hands, I could not agree with some opinions from the committee. For example, some attendants pointed "further necessity of road construction" or "compensation to additional cost owing to biodiversity conservation". I think those comments were probably because they had been confused loss of biodiversity in Japanese forest with existing problems about degradation of plantations due to insufficient management.

Actually, it may be true that insufficient management is one of the cause of degradation of biodiversity. But it is obvious that intensive management of plantation, especially thinning, is not directly linked to biodiversity conservation.

Management practices, like thinning or road construction, should be conducted as a part of adaptive management. And those practice should be evaluated from the scientific point of view. I hope that it should be emphasized in the final report of the committee.

Original article:http://motoshi.tk/index.php?Web%C6%FC%B5%AD%2F2009-07-07